In the heart of the CBD a secret population thrives. James Woodford leaves no stone unturned in his search for urban wilderness.

Displays of body hair may be uncool in the citys most popular nightspots, but there are great swathes of Sydney where fur rules after dark.We live in a wild town entangled in a mass of complicated food chains, migratory routes, life cycles and species eruptions that scientists have not even begun to understand.The biodiversity of Sydney is stunning; there is a vast range of predators and prey that live in, and regularly pass through, town.We cohabit with millions of climbing, flying, swimming, crawling, hopping, running and rustling critters engaged in a daily or nightly battle for survival.Our mammalian neighbours range in size from microbats not much bigger than a humans little finger to one of the behemoths of the ocean the 40-tonne humpback whale.There are insects, such as cicadas, that make aircraft noise seem soothing, and spiders, like funnel-webs, as terrifying as any human thug.The harbour, Botany Bay and the ocean off Sydney are home to fish as elaborately clothed as the leafy sea dragon and as brutal as the great white shark. One of the worlds biggest owls, the 60 centimetre tall powerful owl, is a regular visitor to the flying fox colony in the Royal Botanic Gardens.Majestic sea eagles hunt along the Parramatta River near Homebush Bay and the worlds fastest animal the peregrine falcon is known to do 300 kilometre per hour base jumps from office towers.National Parks and Wildlife Service wildlife management officer Geoff Ross says there are numerous pairs of these raptors (birds of prey) in Sydney.They set up their eyries on the highest buildings in the city ...